Time
by crazytomboy78
Summary: When Tony invents a working prototype time machine, he decides to go back in time and prevents the plane from crashing. When he discovers what he's done to the future, will he be able to fix it or will the future be changed forever? Pepperony, kind of AU.
1. Inventing a Masterpiece

**So, this idea was actually derived from a commercial I was watching. I forgot which one, but it's not from deviantart so don't worry about disclaimers or all that.**

Tony's lab was hardly lit as he worked vigorously inside it. He'd woken up with the biggest idea he'd had since before the plane crash (which was the Iron Man armor idea) and had explained to everyone that he was going to be working in his lab all day and all night if he needed to. He had requested to work alone, but if someone felt that it was absolutely necessary to disrupt his progress. He cleared himself of any possible disruptions, human or Iron Man-related. He wanted to complete this while the idea was fresh in his head. It was sort of like cracking an egg; you can't just crack it open then leave it. It won't be as good later.

The young inventor had always been on the borderline of time traveling; all scientists believed it was possible. Einstein had even believed it, and that was something that pushed Tony to attempt it and now he had. He'd woken up and it was like the blueprints were scanned into his head randomly. If this works, he thought, I'd revolutionize the world. He felt like the utmost genius of the city with this idea in his head. He was working on the inside when he heard footsteps brushing the floor of his lab. He didn't care to look up to see who was here and grace their presence with a greeting.

"So, what's today's work?" A girl's voice asked. Tony grunted once as a response and continued his work. The girl sighed in complaint and tried again.

"Come on, what are you doing?" She asked. He still did not give her his attention. He may have muffled something into his project-thingy, she thought, but she didn't hear it. (And even if she had heard him say something she wouldn't have understood it anyways.) What he was doing that was more important than eating or paying attention to his friends was beyond her, but she knew Tony and she knew that with just a little more prodding he'd give a clear answer. She knew how he worked by now. She watched him work more and in an effort to get him to at least glance at her, she flipped her red hair innocently. Nothing. She rolled her eyes. When Tony was in his work, he was deep in it. There was no getting him out until he wanted to get out.

"Can't I just have a hint, then?" She asked. Tony sighed and stuck his head up without looking away from what he was doing.

"Fine, I'll tell you. I'm making a prototype for a time machine." He lowered his head once more. Pepper sighed and watched him work more. He would obviously not be paying attention to anyone but his little 'time travel' project today, but oddly that was okay with her because she got to watch him work and sometimes when he was inventing stuff his muscles flexed and that made him look hot. Plus somewhere in the middle of his work he'd have to charge his heart and he'd have to take his shirt off when she was in the room. Of course, then he would wonder why she's just sitting in the lab watching him work (maybe he wouldn't because he'd be so wrapped in his work that he wouldn't care to ask).

~…~

"A-ha!" Tony exclaimed. Pepper had gone to have dinner with her mother earlier, so Tony had exclaimed it to himself. His precious prototype was finally finished, and it looked like it would work; but there was only one sure way to find out. He pushed a few buttons and a large, purple-ish circle opened up in the large, circular frame. The portal. At least the sight test was working, Tony thought. He checked off visual test on the chart he had made upon starting the project and hesitating to think about stepping inside it. He stared into the spinning portal, actually kind of scared. To go back in time was to revolutionize the world today. He knew to be careful in what he did because what he did in the past could alter the course of events in the future.

Tony stepped through the portal.

At first it was all white light as he carefully stepped forward. Soon enough the white light turned to dimly lit city street lights of the Big Apple. Tony looked around to see where he was. It was the part of town where there were more places to eat than attractions to be at. He knew where he was, now he just had to know when he was. He caught the attention of a passerby for the information and asked if he could get the time. The street walker looked at his watch impatiently and told him that it was just about 5:04pm. Tony thanked him and asked another person the date. The person explained the date, Tony thanked them and walked off. He walked by the restaurant district and passed a restaurant with booths by the windows so you could see who was sitting at the table. That was when Tony saw her.

He caught red hair out of the corner of his eye, and glanced again to see that his initial suspicion was correct; Pepper was sitting in the booth. Who she was sharing a meal with, he wanted to know. Some feeling that had been buried deep inside him, it felt, was digging its way out. He felt that every time he saw Pepper with any guy that wasn't him. Tony glanced to the left a bit to see Gene on the other side of her stare. Tony gasped. Pepper…at dinner…with Gene? Why would she go out with Gene? She hates Gene. Unless…

Then it clicked for Tony. The date was the day that they had to do that group project and Pepper got paired with Gene. They must have argued their way to the restaurant without him knowing. And all that time he'd thought Pepper was annoying him in words until he yelled at her and she was silent for a while until trying again. He was wrong. He'd given Pepper the chance to get close to Gene by not being around them and leaving them alone together. He'd made a mistake, a big mistake. The small feeling that was showing a bit earlier was finding its way out from the bottom of Tony, and Tony didn't like it one bit. He tried to identify it but for the life of him could not. Rhodey had mentioned that one word…what was it…jealousy? Whatever that meant.

Tony had the urge to go in there and ask Gene what the heck he was doing with Pepper, but he remembered that he wasn't in the right time and he could change the future for the worse if he interfered. He decided to leave it be and look around town more to finish the evaluation of the time machine. The time travel test had passed, and it seemed that everything was in order and everything worked. Tony pulled a remote-type thing from his pocket, pressed a few buttons, and when he opened his eyes again, he was back in his lab. It worked, he thought. He really time travelled. Then Tony realized something else that he wanted to see.

He set the time and date and walked back through the portal. When his eyes opened once more, he saw that he was just where he wanted to be. He looked around. Empty field. Tony looked to the sky to see a white and blue jet. Tony made sure he was back far enough. He was good. He shut his eyes in fear for a few moments then once he opened them, the empty field he was staring into was the site of destruction. Parts of plane were everywhere, and a young brown-haired boy was lying on the ground, gauntlet on his arm, reaching for the rest of his armor in searing pain. Tony looked away and changed the date and time on his time machine controller to a different past date.

The new date was a little less painful. Tony was watching himself on the roof and saw behind his daydreaming past self to see Pepper staring at the back of his head. Why would she stare at him? Then again…she'd done stuff like that tons of times before…and the way she was looking at him was almost a look of admiration. Tony kept the thought and his stares. The more he examined it, the more he thought she was admiring him as she told him all about himself. Before he could get caught staring by people from the past, he set the remote to present time and he was back in his lab. Knowing that the time machine worked, he started finding a way to integrate the technology into the Iron Man armor in a way to avoid thinking about the fact that he observed Pepper admiring him. Maybe it was just the shock of first meeting a rich teenage boy, Tony thought.

Then he had an idea.

**Aww, this story is going to be sooo cute. I guess I'm going to do a good amount of posting for a few months, I have like a ton of stories going now. (What, fifth story still going?) review!**


	2. Time Travel: Good or Bad?

Tony watched the Stark jet fly high in the sky, knowing he and his father were inside it. He pushed a button on his time-travel remote and suddenly he was in an old room with a man in large black armor pacing the floor. Tony smiled and put on his armor.

Just before the Mandarin could flash himself out, Iron Man clung a gauntlet to his shoulder. This move prevented the Mandarin from going anywhere. Gene turned to Tony, very aggravated.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" He asked. Tony smiled behind his armor.

"Let's just say I'm here to prevent you from ruining Tony Stark's life."

~…~

In the jet so far above the land sat two geniuses; conversing about what the older of the two, the father of the younger, liked to call the Makluan Rings. The son was droning about how boring his father's speech was. He grew up in the future, but his father had grown up with a sharp interest in the past. Suddenly, a hologram of the father's assistant showed in front of them saying that Obadiah Stane wanted to talk to him again. The father said it was okay and let the man talk.

"A thousand bucks says this is about the earth movers project." The boy said with a teasing smile.

"You're on," The father challenged. The son stood, patted his father's shoulder and said,

"I'm gonna go prep before landing." He walked to the back of the plane, typed in a four-digit code on a keypad and walked inside to prepare his suit of armor; on the way, hearing 'earth movers project' from behind him and celebrated to the fact that he was rich now, even though he and his father were already rich.

From an area of the plane where he could not be seen but instead see what was happening, Iron Man hid his smile behind his gold-painted mask. He felt the plane began to pull down, which indicated landing was beginning. He quickly found his exit via time travel remote.

Upon landing, the boy exited the jet wielding a large metal case. His father following curiously, the boy laid the metal case onto the test table. He opened the case, took out a red and gold helmet, and placed it over his head. His father noted the motion and was surprised at a full body armor following the helmet, and took a step back. The armor engulfed his son and soon he was a large mass of red and yellow armor. The older man was stunned. He watched his son's demonstration of weapons and repulsors and was further amazed at what his son had created. He'd never thought of anything like this and all this time his son had been creating a work of technological artwork.

"Tony, this is amazing!" The father said. It was like he was frozen in amazement. His own son was topping everything he'd ever done.

Tony set his feet on the ground and took off his armor with a bright smile on his face.

"Impressed?" He asked his father, who was almost speechless.

In the corner of the room, once again not being seen but seeing, Iron Man observed the father and son bonding. It joyed him to see what he'd never gotten to experience in his life. How he wished that day had never happened. If what he was seeing now wasn't a twisting of the timeline, he would be happy with his father inventing stuff that benefited the world and he would never have experienced all the new emotions he'd discovered like true friendship and love and caring and all that stupid stuff. But now he would never have to feel all those pesky emotions again. Little did he know what a huge mistake he'd just made.

~…~

When Tony got back from his little adventure, shall we say, he felt like something was off. He shrugged off the feeling and went to see if his experiment had worked. He exited the factory and crossed the grounds into the city. He strolled merrily down the streets of the city to see that so far everything was the same as before. People walking down the streets in business clothes and wielding briefcases and such, other mindless teenagers walking down the street with their friends and their iPods, tourist families oohing and aahhing at the sights of the city which he was very used to by now.

He came to Stark International to see that unlike it had been in the past months, the guards out front waved in a friendly matter and let him walk right in. Tony found it strange that they'd gone from being kind to him all the time to pretending they didn't even know who he was then back to knowing him very well, but he remembered the circumstances and walked further into the building and found his way upstairs to his father's office. He was almost scared to see what was waiting for him up there, but so far everything looked like it had been before the plane crash and he knew that his father should be in that office, behind the door that he was hesitating to open at the moment.

Tony finally got around to opening the door after Trish, sitting at her desk, asked him what was wrong and he explained that he didn't know, he was just feeling a bit off today. When he opened his eyes and opened the door, his father was standing in his office working as usual. Howard smiled up to him with a friendly greeting and looked back down to his work. Tony knew then that what he was trying to had succeeded.

If only he knew the consequences…

~…~

After Tony had excused himself from Stark International, he went to the school to check for one more thing. He was curious as to what happened to his school career now that his father wasn't dead and the results of him supposedly being dead but really being kidnapped by someone who lied to everyone about being a friend. Things had to be different, but he neglected the fact that with his father not dead and safe and sound in Stark International, his school career did not exist.

Once he got onto the campus, he figured it was just about the end of the school day because everyone was walking out of the school. Tony proceeded to find his way into the school, but was stopped by a confused Rhodey.

"Dude, what are you doing here?" He asked Tony. Tony saw Pepper behind Rhodey.

"I go to school here, remember? Duhh." Tony explained.

"No you don't. You've never been to school in your life, why would you go now? Dude, are you okay?" Rhodey placed a hand on Tony's forehead to measure temperature. He seemed fine physically, just not mentally.

"Because I had to enroll here, remember?"

"What are you talking about?" Tony noticed Pepper was eerily quiet.

"Pepper, you know what I'm talking about don't you?" Tony asked. Pepper shyly shook her head no. Tony was worried as to why she was being shy around him.

"Man, maybe we should get you back to your place." Rhodey started to push Tony away from the school. Tony resisted.

"Pepper, you know me don't you? Come on, we're friends! What's wrong with you guys today?" Pepper shook her head.

"Well everyone knows you, you're Tony Stark! Esteemed genius billionaire! I would be soo lucky to be friends with a rich kid!" Pepper squealed excitedly. What went through her head was the fact that someone she'd seen on TV—even if it was just the news—was actually talking to her as if he knew her like a real friend, and that was the most excitement she'd gotten in her life since she saw her parents fighting over custody junk. Tony sighed. What was wrong with them today?

Then he remembered what he'd just done. He realized the results.

"Of course! Without the plane crash, dad never got kidnapped and if he's not assumed dead then I never had to go to school, and if I never had to go to school I never met Pepper!" Tony said. Pepper and

Rhodey looked at him, very confused. What he was talking about, they would never know.

"Why don't you sit down and tell me what you're talking about?" Rhodey said, trying to seat Tony on a park bench. Tony refused.

"Come on, something has to trigger some sort of parallel universe memories. Remember that time Killer Shrike and Unicorn kidnapped us and Gene, and I said let me guess, this is better and you were all like yeah? Or how about that time you were running from Mr. Fix's goons and I saved you and you tricked me into telling you I'm Iron Man?" Tony was begging for Pepper to remember the precious moments they'd had together and had cherished without anyone knowing. He'd not seen this coming and now he felt a sense of regret.

"N-no, I'm sorry, I don't remember any of that happening. I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm so sorry…" Pepper backed away.

"Come on, you guys have to know what I'm talking about!" Both friends shook their heads.

"No, no, this is all wrong! I didn't think this would happen, I-I have to fix this!" Tony could be seen fleeing the sight.

His sense of regret was much larger then just a sense now.

**Well, that was dramaticcc! Awwkayy, maybe now I'm done updating for a bit. Maybe I can get a break now. You know, day after day of updating because ya got six stories running is kinda tiring…review!**


	3. Get Used To It

Tony didn't even have a lab to pace in. Scratch that, he had the lab that he and his father often worked in. But he missed his old lab from his old parallel universe home. Pepper not knowing him was bad enough, now he had no lab and no use for the Iron Man armor? Everything was unraveling quickly and Tony did not like it one bit.

"I have to fix what I've done,"

Tony went to the old lab—that now didn't exist—and found that the time machine was still there. He put in the correct time and hit the button that activated the portal, but;

It wouldn't turn on.

Tony inspected the inner workings of the time machine. Everything looked perfectly fine, until he noticed what was causing it not to work. The factory was old and weathered, so a piece of a higher-up shelf had fallen off and broken the control panel off of the portal itself, and with it took a chunk of the portal.

But that wasn't all. When he inspected the wiring that had been between the portal and the control panel, he saw that all the wires had been snapped in half and the ends were extremely frayed. It looked very damaged.

"It's going to take forever to fix this!" Tony exclaimed to no one in particular.

~…~

"Where the heck is Tony?" Pepper asked, having inspected the lab and saw nothing of Tony.

"Not at my house." Rhodey answered. He was looking, too, but was getting worried about not seeing Tony.

What they did finally see is a large, strange looking machine in the last part of the lab they had left to check. They had no idea what it was or what to make of it. Rhodey was forming a good idea of what it did, though.

Rhodey approached the mysterious machine curiously and examined it. The more he looked at it, the more he started to figure. He saw some sort of control panel. He examined all the buttons on it, and began to get the general idea of how it worked. He pressed a button, took a step back, and saw swirling light and dark purples.

They were both dumbfounded. Tony had invented this?

Pepper, curious, stuck her head into the mysterious thing. What she saw on the other side shocked her.

"Tony invented a time machine!"

~…~

Tony gave up on fixing the time machine. It was too much work, too much stress. He didn't want to deal with it now.

He decided to spend time with his dad. He walked out of the old, abandoned lab and into the streets of the city. But as he was walking down the street, he came across Pepper.

"Hey, Pepper." Tony said, out of impulse (force of habit sort of thing.) Pepper stopped shyly.

"Oh, h-hi." Tony then remembered that this Pepper didn't ever meet him, so she was shyer around him. It was weird to communicate with Pepper without her being completely open with him all the time; (little did he know that she wasn't always open with him.) it was…different.

"What's up? Come on; at least let's hang out or something. It feels weird to think that you don't know me personally." Tony insisted. He needed to maintain at least a sense of regularity by making her his friend.

"Umm, okay…" Tony smiled at her.

"Come on. You can come to my lab with me and I'll show you some of the stuff I've invented." She smiled shyly, nodded, and followed Tony to his lab. Tony felt like this wasn't normally the way it was with Pepper before he meddled with time traveling, but he didn't know how. She was always by his side when he was in his lab before, why is now any different?

They came to Tony's lab—which he shared with his father, they often worked side by side (except Howard had his own lab when he wanted to work on things on his own)—and Tony let her in before him, saying "Ladies first," as she passed by him. She giggled and looked around at his lab in awe.

"I think my dad is working on stuff in his lab today, so it's all mine today," Tony was trying not to be used to the life he had now, but it was just so hard for him. The life he had wished he led, now he had the chance to live. And it was oh-so-hard for him to resist.

"So, genius, what's this?" As the words escaped her lips, they sounded like something she'd never said before. She didn't usually talk that way to people, but he just brought out a different side in her. Something about him, she liked. Yet, she couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was about him that brought out this side in her.

Tony chuckled to himself. _Good old Pepper,_ he thought. She was pointing to the screen that was on his laptop. Tony smiled at it. He remembered the project from before the plane crash—that now hadn't –happened—but had been sidetracked with the Iron Man armor idea.

"That, is a prototype for an artificial and self-aware intelligence system that I call J.A.R.V.I.S." Tony explained.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. being a clever anagram or just a name?" She said teasingly.

"Umm, an anagram." Pepper crossed her arms and smirked.

"For what, exactly?" Tony blushed lightly and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Uhh, that information escapes me at the moment…" Tony lied. Pepper laughed and looked around Tony's lab more. She pointed to a big, chunky piece of metal on a lab table.

"And this?" She asked.

"Oh, that's just a car engine I'm working on. I wanted to see if I could perfect one, and get a better understanding of cars before I learn to drive." Tony explained. Pepper chuckled.

"Nerd," she teased. Tony said thank you just to tease her back and followed her as she inspected his lab more. She was surprised when she saw what was displayed in the back.

"What…is that?" She asked, shocked beyond her belief. Tony smiled. He was tempted, for some odd reason, to put his arm around her. But he resisted.

"That is what I like to call the Iron Man armor. It's a weapons-capable suit of armor." Tony explained.

"W-wow…this is so amazing, Tony! I-I, don't even know what to say!" She exclaimed. Tony smiled.

"Wanna take it for a spin?" Pepper looked at him like he'd grown a second head. Tony crossed his arms and smiled.

~…~

Seeing what looked like a man carrying another person flying through the sky was not a normal part of an average New Yorker commuting from his half a day of work for lunch. Everyone—citizen or tourist—was surprised when they saw the site. Not only did it look like a flying man, it looked like a flying man carrying another man. Some people took pictures and zoomed in on them to see exactly what it was, some people squinted to try and get a better image, some people disregarded it and continued on their way to wherever they were going.

Up in the sky, however, it was a different story. Tony, in his armor, was having a blast **(A/N: haha, get it?) **seeing Pepper's bright smile as they flew through the sky. He hadn't ever openly offered anyone a ride in the armor, besides when he told Rhodey to take it for a spin. But he loved how her eyes lit up with her smile and she looked like she was genuinely having a good time. It was those moments he enjoyed.

"Wow, Tony, this is amazing! I can't believe you invented something like this!" Pepper exclaimed as Tony slowly lowered himself and Pepper onto the roof of a city skyscraper. Once they felt ground underneath their feet, he dropped his hands to his side and took a step back from her to give her her space. She was still brightly smiling. It got quiet between them as Tony opened his face mask. It felt like he had lost all knowledge of what in the world to say back to her. He studied her smile, which slowly faded as they got closer to each other's lips with their own.

They were so close, yet it seemed that whoever was in charge of the skyscraper they were standing on had realized that they were there and despite being amazed by what Tony was wielding, told them to get off his roof because he was disturbing people trying to work beneath their feet. Tony cursed to himself. If he just hadn't seen him, his lips would have met hers and what he'd wanted to do for so long would have been done and he could understand the weird feelings he'd had ever since he first met Pepper.

He sighed, took Pepper by the waist once more, and started the journey back to the lab.

**Well, cool third chapter? No? Why not? Why did you like it? Was it great, or completely dull? Review with an answer, cuz I appreciates me some constructive criticism :3**


	4. She's On His Mind

"He did _**what**_?" Asked Rhodey, shocked.

"A time machine! You know, step inside it and you're in a different time?" Pepper said.

"He must have gone inside it! This is not good, who knows what he must have done!" Rhodey complained. Tony could be in any which time he desired, and that made it that much more impossible to find him and yell at him for disappearing without telling anyone. Rhodey studied Tony's amazing creation, circling it as Pepper just stood and watched it.

"Umm, actually Rhodey, I think that's the least of our problems…" Pepper was looking down to her feet, which were dissolving beneath her; leaving her to slowly disappear along with her surroundings.

"What's going on?" Rhodey asked in a panicked tone as he watched himself start to disappear.

"Tony must have changed the past!" Pepper said in a panicked tone. Before they could panic more, they had fully disappeared.

~…~

Tony, who was working in his lab, didn't bother to look back to see Pepper walking into the lab. She had visited daily ever since he'd first come across her, and he was beginning to like having her attention without having Rhodey's at the same time. Often times he wasn't really ever alone with Pepper because he'd always stayed close to Rhodey and Pepper had just stuck by him.

"Working again?" She said.

"Mmhmm." Tony said, concentrating deeply on an invention. Pepper sat on the empty counter space next to Tony and watched him work. Tony enjoyed her attention as well. He'd gotten attention from her before he'd altered the time line, but this attention was different. Before it was in a friendly way, but now it felt different. Kind of….flirty.

"Don't you do anything else?" She asked.

"Well I help my dad with his inventions." Pepper chuckled.

"Oh you do so many different things!" Pepper teased sarcastically. Tony smiled up to her.

"I know. I'm so multi-talented."

"If you're so multi-talented, then how good are you at getting lunch?" Pepper crossed her arms playfully.

"I dabble." Tony said as he set down his tools and placed his hands on his hips in a dignified way.

"Well perhaps we could test your skill." Pepper said.

"Perhaps we should," Tony stuck out his elbow, and Pepper hooked arms with him as they walked out of the lab and found an outdoor hotdog stand in the park. It was a nice spring afternoon, so Tony and Pepper found a park bench and sat down to a yummy hotdog.

They enjoyed their meals in silence as they chowed down on their meals and Tony smiled at her with his mouth full. Pepper laughed at his dorkiness and continued to eat.

Two hotdogs later, Tony and Pepper started on their way back to bring Pepper to her apartment because her father had called her home. They walked slowly through the city, talking about meaningless things on their way.

Stopping at Pepper's apartment door, Tony stared into Pepper's eyes. For some reason, when he looked at her this time it was very different. Something about her struck him as beautiful. He'd stared at her millions of times before and had a normal response, so why was it that this time he couldn't keep his eyes off of her? He could save people's lives on a daily basis but he couldn't take his eyes off of a girl? Not even talk to her? His voice seemed mute.

He didn't know what came over him, but he leaned in and kissed her. Something about it struck him as right, like he should have done it a long time ago. It felt magical, and it was like nothing he'd ever experienced before. Tony remembered all the times he'd came just a bit too close to her and felt some sort of a spark between them. Every time he had brushed by her and touched hands—whether it be an accident or just to get her hand in his for a mere minute—or him wrapping his arm around her, there had always been that igniting spark between them that he just couldn't identify.

Parting, Tony said, "U-uhh…have," Tony paused when he realized his voice was high and squeaky and cleared his throat, "have a good day…" Tony waved at her, but Pepper was too dazed to see it. Tony sighed delightfully and found his way home.

~…~

"Umm, Tony, you do know that you should actually look at what you're doing when you're welding, right?" Rhodey said. Tony had been in a daze all day. It was very unlike him to be unfocused on his work; he was always so serious about his work. But now he was…distracted, by something. Perhaps, Rhodey thought, I'd missed something yesterday…

"What? Oh, sorry. I was distracted." Tony said happily.

"Dude, you're never distracted. What's up with you today?" Rhodey asked. Tony was almost too distracted to be confused at Rhodey's accusation.

"What? Nothing's wrong with me I'm perfectly fine." Tony said. Rhodey wasn't convinced.

"I don't know, man. You usually concentrate on everything, but you seem a little off today. Are you sure you're okay?" Rhodey said. Tony set down his work and turned to Rhodey.

"Well if you must know, there's this girl…" But Tony was stopped there. This was very new to Rhodey, because Tony had never bothered with females or dating ever before.

"You met a girl? You never do that!" Rhodey exclaimed.

"Yeah, well…something's different about her," Tony said. _Different, alright._

"Well what's her name?" Rhodey asked. Tony smiled. Her name was like music to his ears.

"Pepper," Tony answered. Rhodey was silent for a moment.

"Pepper? That's your girl? That weird crazy girl from my school?"

"Hey, she's a great girl," Tony defended. He knew that before Tony had met her, Rhodey had always thought that Pepper was just a bit crazy. Of course, she was, but the more you got to know her the more it seemed like a good crazy.

"And besides, she's been in my head all day. I just can't stop thinking about her." Tony added.

"Well whatever. As long as you're happy I guess," Rhodey said. He knew he'd just have to learn to get used to her being around.

"I'm glad you understand, dude." Tony patted Rhodey's shoulder and continued his work.

**Fluffy chapteeeerrrr :3 I likeyy. It was cute. Anyways, review!**


	5. Conversations

As the sun poured into his room, Tony's eyes fluttered open peacefully. He sat up, stretched and yawned and when he opened his eyes again he half-screamed when he saw Pepper standing at the edge of his bed.

"Pepper, what are you doing here?" He asked, standing from his bed. Pepper noticed that Tony was in his 'pjs'—his pants and the absence of a shirt. And she quite liked the sight of him shirtless—then she caught sight of something round and techie-looking in the center of his chest. She gasped.

"Tony, what the heck is that?" Pepper asked scaredly. Tony glanced down to his heart implant then looked back to Pepper.

"Oh, this?" Tony said. He'd forgotten all about his heart implant not having been needed if the plane never crashed. But he wasn't about to make a habit of lying to her. "It's just…well, it's really hard to explain but basically there was an accident a while back and it ended in me having to put this thing in; a heart implant. It's nothing, really." Pepper crossed her arms.

"Nothing? Tony, it replaces your heart!" Pepper exclaimed.

"Please, Pepper, don't make a big thing of this. And don't say anything about it, no one knows about the accident." She looked mad now.

"Tony, explain to me exactly why you wouldn't tell anyone that you have a _heart implant._" Tony suddenly found it very hard to keep his promise of not lying to her. Tony sat her down on his bed and sat down next to her, placing his hand on hers.

"Look, I don't exactly know how to explain this but when I do you have to promise me you won't tell anyone else," Pepper looked confusedly at Tony but stayed silent and let him continue.

"Well, a while back…I invented this time machine, and well, I went back in time and prevented my father's plane from ever exploding and crashing in pieces." Tony explained. She looked shocked and her expression was sad.

"And you lived through that? How on earth do you survive a plane crash?" This reminded Tony of the first time she asked this question. And unlike the first time where he had an instinct that he would hate lying to her but he knew he had to, he could tell her the truth.

"My armor saved me that day." He explained. She nodded in understanding.

"Anyways, what are you doing here?" Tony asked once more.

"We were supposed to go to lunch, remember? It's like, noon already!" Pepper explained. Tony checked the time on his phone to see that her story rung true: he had slept past noon again.

"Oh. Oops…" Tony got up, fished a clean shirt and pants out of his closet, and changed in the privacy of his closet and they went on with their day.

~…~

"So, Tony I just have one question. If you said that you've 'made a big mistake and need to go back in time and fix it' then why haven't you yet?" Tony sat back in his seat—they had gotten a table outside for lunch—and set his cup down after taking a sip of soda.

"Well, I left it in an old armory from the other universe and turns out a beam fell on it and it broke in half. I've been trying to work on it, but the more time I spend here the more I like it," Tony paused, "I-I mean, everything goes so well here, nothing goes wrong. I was never hurt in a plane crash, I never thought my dad died, and I never got betrayed by someone I thought was my friend. It seems so perfect here…"

"Well, Tony, you have to think of what you left behind. Yeah, things seemed grim before you altered the time line, but hey-you had friends who care about you, you had a guardian that protected you no matter what you did, you were getting an education…everyone feels pain, Tony, we just have to learn to deal with it. There's no way around it." She paused.

"And besides, if you can still remember that those things happened then you still felt the pain of it. So what's the use of creating a new timeline?" Tony was silent. He hadn't exactly thought about that.

"But, I like it here so much. I mean, in the old universe you and I were just friends and every day it was just so hard to tell you just how I felt, and I felt so down…I-it's just better this way." Pepper cooed in her thoughts.

"Tony, in life everything has an opposite. One side of the opposite cannot exist without the other. Happiness cannot exsist without sadness, life cannot exist without death, etc. You get the idea." Pepper said.

"Wow, Pepper that was actually pretty deep." Tony said. Pepper snorted in laughter.

"I know right? I heard that in my English class yesterday." She laughed. Tony rolled his eyes merrily.

"Well anyways, Tony so what if you couldn't tell me how you feel? Maybe one day you'll look straight in my eyes and it will just pour out. You just have to be patient. Besides, you could tell me here, what's different than any other time?" Pepper explained. Tony absorbed what she had said. It bared a lot of resemblance to something Rhodey had told him on the topic, and he remembered the advice each time someone told it to him but it never really helped when he was talking to her. He could never work up the nerve to just come out with it, and that was when he realized that in the process of staring at her he forgot to listen to her.

"Well that's just the thing, it's never that easy for me. I don't know why, but I was just born without the ability to talk to pretty girls." Tony complained. Pepper smiled.

"Well although I'll have to thank you for the compliment I'll also have to say that you have to fix your time machine and stop yourself from ever changing the timeline. Everything happens for a reason, sometimes it just takes a while to find out why. Life is full of chances, you just gotta take 'em. But sometimes they're not worth taking." Tony took her words to heart. It was true, after all.

"I guess you're right…I'll get working on the time machine tomorrow." They continued their lunch.

~…~

Rhodey walked into Tony's silent house—the last place left to look for Tony if he was not in his lab and he was not at Stark International—and knew that Howard was not here, but he explored the house anyways because both Tony and Howard had told him that he can just walk in anytime he needs to. And he always knew where Tony was, he never really had any reason to hide where he was or what he was doing. It was mysterious.

Rhodey found his way to Tony's room and saw that the lights were on, and knew that was a sign that Tony was indeed inside. But what he did see when he got inside Tony's room shocked him.

"Tony, what the heck is that thing? How is it attached to you?" Rhodey asked in a freaking-out tone. Tony cursed to himself under his breath; he didn't know that Rhodey would go looking for him today and he didn't want to have anyone else see him this way.

"Look, I know it looks bad but I promise you its nothing. It's just something that replaces my heart which I have to charge every now and then…" Tony mumbled quietly, hoping Rhodey wouldn't understand what he had said.

"It replaces your WHAT? When did this happen?" Tony really didn't want to lie to his best friend, but he didn't know what else to say. He knew he couldn't tell anyone else the truth. It wasn't that Tony trusted Pepper more than someone he's known since childhood, it was just that despite the fact that they're both very hard for him to have to lie to, it was just harder for him to lie to the girl he liked so very much.

"Well its kind of a long story, you wouldn't really understand." Tony said. Rhodey folded his arms.

"Tony, how did this happen?" He asked again. Tony sighed.

"I…well, I was walking through a construction sight one day when I tripped over my shoelace and fell onto one of the beams and it injured my heart, because the beam was so rusty and stuff. That's where I was last week, when I didn't show up anywhere for a week? Remember? I-I just didn't want to tell you yet because I didn't want you to freak out…look, I have to go okay? I'll talk later…" Tony brushed past Rhodey, looking down at his feet as to avoid Rhodey's curious gaze. Rhodey didn't feel that Tony's story was very authentic, and he felt that Tony was being very vague lately. Something's up with him, he thought.

**Ehh, this was a blahh chapter…review?**


	6. Settled In, But Not For Long

"Alright, Pepper, I know we don't usually talk but it seems you and Tony are in a relationship and Tony's been acting really mysterious lately. Do you know what's up with him lately?" Rhodey quizzed Pepper as she sat. Pepper felt bad that she couldn't tell him, but she had promised her boyfriend she wouldn't say anything before he had the chance to. So, she shrugged.

"I…I can't say, I'm sorry," Pepper said. Rhodey sighed.

"Why not?"

"Because, I really can't. I don't know." She hated to lie, and she hoped she wouldn't have to for long. It killed her, really, she had been taught so well to never lie because lying is bad.

"Well keep me posted if you do find anything out, okay?"

"Okay, I will…" Pepper looked down to her feet. She didn't want to have to do that kind of thing to Tony, but Rhodey was Tony's friend and he was just trying to find out what's wrong with his friend. There's nothing wrong with that, right?

~…~

Tony set the separate pieces to the time machine on his workbench. He had no clue how he was going to fix the thing, but if Pepper had felt that strongly about it then he figured he'd at least give it a look. He knew that he had to find each end to the internal wire, and reconnect them; and he knew that would take a good part of his day. A part of his day he wanted to use to work on other projects he had started since he'd gotten there. Tony decided to get to work.

"What'cha working on, son?" Tony heard his father's questioning voice fill the lab around him.

"Fixing something I need…" Tony explained. He really hoped his father didn't ask what he was working on, because he really did not want to lie to his own father, especially since they had just been reunited—without Howard realizing it of course. Thankfully for Tony, Howard shrugged and went on to do his own work.

Howard, however, glanced at Tony's mysterious contraption as he worked on his own work and wondered aloud.

"What is that, exactly, Tony?" He asked. Tony cursed to himself.

"U-uhh," Tony paused to think of an excuse, "I'm not sure as of right now, but I'm working on a new laser system." Tony said remorsefully. He knew he couldn't tell his father about the time machine, and it would be hard to tell him about Iron Man if he ever saw the suits. He felt relieved that his dad didn't recognize the remorse in his tone, because he really didn't know how to explain that.

~…~

"Tony, you'd better plan on telling Rhodey about the whole time travel thing soon because I'm not going to keep up a lie," Pepper prompted. Tony sighed.

"Pepper, I'd never make you do anything you don't want to do. I promise." Tony said as he leaned in and pecked her quickly.

"Good," She said. "So how's your time machine coming along?"

"Well, I started gathering all the wires today and tomorrow I'm going to work on welding them back together. Then after that maybe I'll start reattaching the casing." Tony explained. Pepper nodded in understanding.

"And when you're done you promise me you'll fix things so you never went back in time?" Pepper prodded. Tony sighed,

"Yeah, I promise." He said. Pepper smiled and patted his cheek.

"Good boy." Tony chuckled at the motion, wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and walked on.

~…~

Rhodey was still curious about Tony. He was acting strange lately. But he didn't want to have to go to Howard about it unless he noticed it got progressively worse. Which he really didn't want to jinx, either. It had seemed like Pepper felt guilty when he had asked her if she knew. Of course, Rhodey understood how important Pepper was to him, but could there be something he would tell to his girlfriend that he wouldn't say to his own best friend? What was Tony up to?

It was bad enough he was lying about his own damaged heart. Tripping on a support beam doesn't damage one's heart to that extent, does it? Of course not. So what wasn't Tony saying, and why was it so sudden that he was being so mysterious lately?

~…~

Tony opened the front door to his and his father's house for Pepper and allowed her to walk in first. She hadn't yet been to his house, and she was excited to be there. Their house was somewhat larger than average, but they sure didn't like to show off their money in their house. On the inside it looked like any other average home in the suburbs or in an average, simple town. It looked like their mother had decorated it when they first got it.

Tony led Pepper to his room so they could sit down and hang out. Pepper looked around his room. There was a bunch of what looked like forgotten schematics taped to his wall. On his nightstand, however, was a photograph of a woman with brown hair and blue eyes that somewhat resembled Tony.

"Who's this?" She asked. Tony looked over to the picture Pepper was holding and quickly looked away.

"Oh, that's my mom." Tony explained, trying to keep his voice from quivering. Sometimes it still hurt to think of her because when he was alone he sat in his room and he had nothing to do, he thought of his mother and all the things they'd done together. All the fun times they'd had when he was young, all the times he missed her when he went to day care or preschool…he missed her sometimes.

"Oh…I'm sorry," Pepper set down the picture carefully.

"No, it's okay. You didn't know." Tony said.

"What happened?" She asked. She hoped he wouldn't mind her asking, but she was curious.

"Well, it all happened at the start of first grade…"

**Flashback…**

_The young boy ran down the stairs as fast as he could, clutching his mother's hand as tightly as was possible. He was running ahead of her, and the businesspeople around him were crowding the stairs as well. The boy wanted to look back to make sure his mother was still there, but he was too scared and determined to escape the falling building. He was a smart boy; he knew the physics of what was happening. He knew what type of plane(s) had flown into the building, too. His father had taught him well, after all. _

"_Come on, mommy we have to get out of here! We don't have much time!" He exclaimed._

"_I'm right here, Tony, just keep running as fast as you can!" _

_The day had started out like any other. The mother had gotten ready for work, gotten her son ready for first grade only to find out that he wasn't feeling well. Of course she wasn't going to leave her son alone all day, and Howard had already gone to work, and she wasn't going to be able to find a babysitter at this early hour, she knew she had no choice but to bring him with her._

_She worked in one of the upper floors of the building, which made the situation that much worse. They had to go down twenty flights of stairs, because the elevator was getting so crowded it was almost breaking. That and given the situation, it was a safer and better idea to just take the stairs like so many other people._

"_Mommy, I'm scared!" The boy exclaimed._

"_Listen to me, Tony, immediately after you get out of the building run straight to daddy okay? Promise me you'll do that!" The mother exclaimed._

"_I promise, mommy! But what about you?" He asked._

"_Don't mind me, I'll be fine!" _

"_But what if we don't make it?" The boy saw the bottom of the stairs approaching so quickly yet so slowly._

"_We will, Tony, but just remember, I love you so much and you're always going to be my baby boy!" She exclaimed. She knew their fate, and she didn't much like it._

"_I love you too, mommy!" The boy was in too much of a rush to get out of the building and far away to realize that his mother's hand had slipped out of his._

_Once the boy was out of the building, he followed his mother's orders and ran immediately to Stark International, where his father worked. He found it, ignoring the panicked screams of people on the streets and ignoring the smoke and ash that filled the air. He found the entrance to the company and he quickly ran inside. He ran to the elevator, punched the button for his father's office, and waited impatiently._

_When the elevator dinged, indicating the desired floor was reached, the doors slid open and Tony immediately ran out, ignoring the "Hey, Tony, what's wrong?" from his father's assistant, Trish._

_The boy burst into his father's office, ignoring the man his father was in a meeting with and running to his father's side._

"_Daddy, daddy, I was at work with mommy when a plane crashed into the building and It's falling down and I don't know what happened to mommy!" He explained. His father was confused._

"_What?" _

"_Mommy, she's somewhere in the building still! She told me to go here and get you! Daddy, I'm scared!" The father bent down to hug his son closer to him and glanced up at the man he had a meeting with with sorrow._

"_I'm sorry, Mr. Jones, we'll have to do this another time…" Howard explained._

"_No, it's okay. I understand." Howard thanked the man and ran back to the site with his son only to see that all that was left of the two buildings were crushed building and roving firemen. Tony was in tears and still very scared._

"_Mommy! Where are you?" Tony yelled into the ash and destruction, only to hear it echo and blend in with the other cries and sorrows of other survivors._

**Flashback end…**

"Oh, Tony I'm so sorry!" Pepper exclaimed.

"No, it's okay." Tony said. Pepper hugged him tight and promised herself she'd never let go.

**You know what? I don't care if it's short. It took me FOREVER to get just this much. So deal. It probably took me the equivalent of a week to come up with it. By the way, I know I've done the whole 'Tony's mom' thing like a million times but I got this idea within the month and I needed to get it down somewhere. Review? Pleeease?**


	7. Snooping Around

Rhodey dialed the passcode that opened the door to Tony's lab and sure enough, a moment later it opened and revealed all of Tony's inventions and such to him. Rhodey hated to be a snoop, but if Tony wouldn't say anything then he had to take matters into his own hands. He had to know what it was that Tony was hiding from his best friend. What was so prominent that Tony just had to keep a secret from but told his own girlfriend, whom he had only met just recently? It was too suspicious…too…unlike Tony to do.

Rhodey snooped around at Tony's many parts and pieces to different inventions that he would never be able to guess about. So far, he didn't see anything. But he knew there would be hints there.

Then he caught sight of something he wouldn't soon forget about. It looked, to Rhodey, like some sort of man-sized robot. And he said man-sized because Tony had invented robots before but they were only small prototypes.

Rhodey rested his hand on the arm and examined the mysterious object. When his hand ran over the neck, suddenly the face mask opened and inside, it looked like a bunch of high-tech gadgetry that was new to this era. Where had Tony been, and what had he been doing?

Upon further examination, Rhodey figured out that it wasn't a robot—it was man-operated. Tony must work this suit of…suit of…armor, I guess, Rhodey thought, but for what?

But his thoughts weren't on the mysterious armor for long. He turned around and looked around more, deciding he'd come back to it later, and saw a new piece of machinery that Rhodey had never heard anything about or seen before in Tony's lab. He examined it up close and looked at all the buttons. After he hit one of them as a test, a purple vortex-type thing opened up in the other part of it. Yet it only flickered for a few moments and then disappeared. Rhodey noticed that not all the wires were attached, and the outer metal casing was broken in two as well. It must have broken somehow, Rhodey thought.

Then Rhodey put two and two together with a gasp.

"Tony invented a time machine!" Rhodey exclaimed, only to be startled out of his aloud-thoughts by another voice.

"Tony told me that's some sort of new laser system," The voice traced back to Howard, who was gathering some stuff he had left in Tony's lab earlier. Rhodey creased his brows in thought. Tony was lying to Howard about it as well? Why would he keep it a secret? And since when did he invent more armors and hide them from everyone?

…what was Tony up to?

~…~

Rhodey lowered the newspaper a bit more so he could fully see what Tony and Pepper were doing on their lunch date; only to find that Tony was feeding Pepper a french-fry romantically. He turned back to the paper, trying not to barf from their gushiness. Something was up with him, though...hiding two amazing inventions from his friends and family, yet showing them to his new, 'I-just-met-you' girlfriend? It was almost like they'd known each other before...

Then Rhodey put it all together. The time machine, entrusting a secret of two inventions to some mysterious stranger that randomly appeared as Tony's girlfriend, having a broken time machine…it was all clear to him now.

But he wouldn't approach Tony with it yet, no. I'm going to torture him with it, Rhodey thought, while a menacing smile played across his lips.

~…~

Howard, having heard Rhodey say that Tony invented a time machine, was suddenly curious. Why had Tony's friend thought it was a time machine? Was there something Tony wasn't telling him? It was as if the curiosity of a sixteen-year-old boy had rubbed off on him; and that's something that didn't normally happen.

Howard approached his son's invention curiously. He examined the broken casing and the wires; he noticed that some were detached but some were welded back together. _Tony must have been working on this…_thought Howard. Howard pressed the button that said 'start' on it. On the detached half, there was a large circle and inside it, a large purple light—almost like some sort of vortex—flickered. Howard stuck his hand through it and then the vortex disappeared.

Howard stepped back in shock. Laser system? _Maybe Rhodey was right…but why would Tony lie? He knows he can tell me anything. _Howard felt offended that Tony would lie about something so impressive. He usually always showed him his new inventions…like that suit of armor he had invented months back…

Bringing up the thought brought another curiosity to Howard's head, but he shook it off.

"Naah, it can't be true…" Howard moved on to his own business.

~…~

"So, what are you going to use the armor for if there are no crazed super villains running around anymore?" Pepper asked in an interested monotone. Tony shrugged.

"Ehh, I don't know. I wish I did, though, the thing has so many uses," Tony complained.

"Why don't you find one then?"

"Because, if I mass-produce it at Stark International, it could lead to trouble and I don't want to take that risk. But there's no major crime to fight in the city, really. At least not yet," Tony explained.

"Well I'm sure you'll think of something." The lunch table was silent for a while, until Tony spoke up.

"Well, I have to get back to the lab and work on the time machine more. But you can tag along if you want," Tony explained. Pepper shrugged and said,

"Ehh, sure."

At Tony's lab, as Tony worked, Pepper sat on the countertop next to him, watching attentively.

"Why is this so interesting to you?" Tony asked, stopping his welding and looking back up at her.

"I don't know, it's just interesting." Pepper said. Tony shrugged and went back to his welding.

Though trying to concentrate on your work when your girlfriend is sitting right near you isn't the easiest thing in the world; especially when your girlfriend walks over to you and rests her head over your shoulder and her hands around his waist as she watched you work. It was hard for Tony to concentrate with her wrapped around him so romantically.

Soon enough, Tony couldn't take it anymore. He put down his welding equipment, lifted his goggles, and turned around to face her as he wrapped his arms around her and began to kiss her. They turned so Pepper was leaning against the counter so Tony could sit her up on the counter and kiss her as she leaned against the wall attached to the work counter. Tony ran his tounge against her smooth, strawberry-flavored lips in his own way of asking for entrance, which was granted. Tony's tounge explored the inside of her mouth, as did hers in his.

Pepper was ecstatic. She'd never experienced a relationship like the one she had in him; he was so unique. He liked to treat her like she was a princess, like she was the most important person in the world. He even told her that she was his world. He's so sweet, and dreamy, and caring….Pepper thought as Tony kissed her more, only to be interrupted by Rhodey clearing his throat as he walked in. Tony immediately parted with a deep, rosy colored blush on his cheeks and went back to his welding. Rhodey approached them with a chuckle.

"Oh hey, what'cha working on Tony?" Rhodey asked, trying to be as clueless as possible.

"Nothing much, really," Tony said.

"Sure looks interesting," Rhodey said, trying to hide a sly smile from his friend and his friend's new girlfriend, "what does it do?"

"U-uhh, I-it, uhh-"

"It's something new that he's working on, it's designed to be like an even more lifelike virtual reality helmet! Except, it's more like a portal…" Pepper interrupted with a smile. Rhodey nodded, faking his interest.

"Cool,"

**Was this good? Hehe, I stole the Pepperony part-concept at the end there from a story I read for another show…just so no one accuses me of stealing it, I say that…anyways, review?**


	8. Hanging Around At Home

"So, Tony, did you finish fixing the time machine yet?" Pepper asked, hands on hips to make her question more of a suggestion.

"Umm, not completely, but I'll get around to it." Tony explained as Pepper watched Tony working away on his armor. Pepper gave him a glare.

"What?" Tony asked defensively as he felt her eyes boring into him.

"Tony, finish it." She demanded.

"Aww, come on. Can't that wait? I've got plenty of time!" Tony whined.

"No, Tony, the sooner the better!" Pepper scolded. Tony sighed and put down the tools he had been using to fiddle with his armor and pressed the buttons that initiated the storing of the armor.

"Fine, fine, I'm going," Tony said, picking up the necessary tools to repair his time machine. "It's like you're my mother." Tony muttered.

"You know you have to get back to the other universe, Tony. There are people there that need you there, we can all defend ourselves. There's no trouble, no Iron Man worries, nothing." Pepper said. Tony didn't want to be hearing it.

"N-no, I don't want to leave! I like it here, I have the girl of my dreams and my father was never kidnapped, and nothing that happened in that life has happened to me here!"

"But Tony, all those things have happened for a reason. Your dad being assumed dead, you meeting me, making friends," she stopped and sighed,

"Tony, everything that happens in life has its own purpose. Your dad being kidnapped, that happened for a reason."

"What reason would there be to take my father from me?" Tony snapped. Pepper was silent.

"Tony, there's a reason. You just have to find it."

Tony reluctantly turned back to repairing his time machine.

~…~

Rhodey didn't want to believe what he was hearing. Who would kidnap Howard? And what 'other things' was Tony talking about? I know, I know, Rhodey thought, if I didn't want to hear that then I shouldn't have eavesdropped. But Rhodey wanted to know more about why Tony would time travel and not bother to go back to his own time. And now he was especially curious as to what exactly had happened that made Tony want to stay in the altered timeline that he had created.

"What exactly had happened when your dad got kidnapped?" Rhodey heard Pepper ask, figuring it was out of curiosity. He knew she would ask; he could just see how she was constantly bursting with curiosity.

"Well it's kind of a long story," Tony began. "And it's not really all that easy to explain."

Rhodey listened intently as Tony explained everything from his dad's diary to Gene to the rings. The more Tony got into the story, the more Rhodey knew how depressingly it would end. Each word made him loathe the ending more and more. He knew already that if this Gene kid was the Mandarin all along, that meant that he was planning on betraying him sooner or later and Rhodey didn't quite want to know how he would do it. _Poor Tony, _he thought, _no wonder he doesn't want to go back. If I were him, I wouldn't either. _

Soon enough the end to Tony's sad tale came and when Rhodey heard it, the sadness of it saddened him a little more than he had expected it would. Why would someone put anyone through such misery like that? No wonder Tony had stayed. He had lived so long after the accident thinking that his father was dead, never to return, only to figure out that his own trusted friend had held him captive for some stupid powerful jewelry and he comes to this altered universe having a father, the girl he had been too afraid to tell how he truly felt about her, and the perfect life all over again.

Rhodey understood his friend's troubles. He suddenly didn't blame him for not telling anyone about his miraculous invention and not telling anyone about his other miraculous invention—in other words, his armors and the time machine—and suddenly felt bad about stringing him along, pretending not to know what was going on.

So Rhodey decided he would gently ease Tony closer to wanting to fix what he had messed with in the time line. He would slowly and kindly convince Tony to fix things while managing to still be a friend…

Yet he knew that that meant that he might have to tell Tony that he knew about the time machine.

~…~

Hours later, Tony stood back up, trying to rub out the pain in his back caused by hours of hunching over and bending over to fix the time machine, basking in the glorious fact that he was almost done fixing it. He just had to fix a few more things that had to do with the controls, then put the outer casing together, and he would be done. And he knew it would have to wait till tomorrow, because when he had looked at his phone he saw that it was late and he should get back home. Wow, is that common sense? Thought Tony. Feels kinda weird.

Tony set down his tools and began his walk home, glancing at his phone only to see that he had _a lot _of messages from Pepper. Just like her, Tony thought, to text me so much in so little time. He smirked at the thought. He knew that Pepper was probably just checking up on him, making sure he didn't work too late or forget about anything too important—like sleeping. He knew she wasn't really being annoying…at least at first. After a few texts she just began to tease him and purposely annoy him.

Tony knew that if he thought about her any more, he would never go back and fix the timeline. It was like she had some super-secret ability to draw him into her and want to never leave. Or maybe that was just love, playing its tricks on him.

Tony sighed happily as he walked through the front door into his house, where his father sat awake on his laptop doing work on the couch.

"What's got you so smitten, son?" Howard asked with a smirk, glancing at Tony from the corner of his eye.

"Oh, I'm thinking you have a pretty good idea." Tony said as he placed his coat on the coat rack, still holding his infatuated smile. Howard smiled. He liked this new…happy, puppy-love-controlled-Tony. He seemed so…happy all the time. Even when he knew that Tony hadn't seen his little girlfriend yet that day, he would still emerge from his room—or his lab—distracted and smiling. He had never seen his son like this before, but honestly, he didn't mind it. It seemed nice.

Tony distractedly walked into his room, layed down on his bed, stared at his ceiling and thought about Pepper; knowing he could not win a battle against love; knowing that love meant not being able to get her out of his mind.

**Well that chapter was short and meaningless…but nonetheless, I'm back! And I have a whole week to update before I go on vacation! Wow, so much time right? Haha, well don't worry. After vacation I'll have all month free (at least in the mornings) to update and I promise you I'll catch up sooner or later. Well anyways, review!**


	9. Almost Finished

Should I tell him? Or not? I don't find it very nice to eavesdrop on a conversation between my best friend and his girlfriend and not even own up to it and apologize, especially when Tony was in such a hurt mindset. His pain combined with his love for Pepper is going to make it awful hard for him to leave this meddled timeline, and he's gonna need a gentle nudge when he finally gets that time machine fixed. But how in the world will I do that without letting Tony know I know about the time machine and his whole ordeal?

Rhodey thought more as he sat in class. He saw Pepper sitting near him, gazing somewhere off in the distance, most likely thinking about Tony. She's gotten a bit of a popularity boost since she made it public that she's dating the one and only Tony Stark, rich teenage billionaire inventor. Then again, dating a good-looking (and this is a public opinion,) rich genius will do that to you, Rhodey thought. She's making a few girls pretty jealous, and not only girls from this school. It's been newsworthy, seeing Tony Stark walking through town with some girl. Everything he does is newsworthy, so it was bound to happen sometime.

"Mr. Rhodes!" The teacher called. Rhodey snapped out of his thoughts to see an agitated teacher awaiting an answer.

"Sorry Mrs. Daniels," He said, "what was the question?"

~…~

"Finally, I'm almost done fixing this thing!" Tony exclaimed with excitement.

"Just have to put the outer casing back together and I'll be done!" Tony looked at the time showing on his phone and realized that it was getting late and he had to go meet Pepper after school soon. He finished fixing the wire he had been working on, set down his stuff, making sure to turn off his welding torch completely, and left his lab.

He usually met Pepper outside her school downtown when she got out and they drove back to either Tony's lab or his house together. Sometimes they even went to her apartment, but not often because it made it difficult for Tony to walk through her apartment building, what with all his fame and publicity.

Tony—who had simply walked this time because he and his father were yet to work on the engine of the car they shared (Tony had gotten his license a month or two back)—stood outside the school, trying not to stand too close so he could mask himself as not to be seen and waited for Pepper. Soon enough she walked out with Rhodey and Tony smiled and waved.

"Where's your car, mister big shot?" Pepper asked with a smile.

"The engine's being weird and my dad and I have to look at it. For now I'm car-less." Tony explained as they began their walk home.

"Aww, poor baby!" She teased. Tony chuckled and wrapped his arm around her. Tony almost started to talk about his progress with the time machine, but he remembered Rhodey was here too and he couldn't have him finding out. He wanted to tell Rhodey, because he was so used to telling Rhodey everything, but something inside him told him not to. Something told him that if he let Rhodey know, he wouldn't take it too well. He wasn't too entirely sure what to do.

They reached Pepper's apartment and Tony stopped outside the complex to say goodbye, because Pepper was instructed to come home immediately after school because her father needed her for something that Tony, for the life of him, could not remember. Tony knew he had work to do anyways, and besides that, Pepper had wicked homework stacked up anyways.

The only thing that was holding him back from his work on the time machine was the fact that Rhodey did not know about it; which brought attention to the fact that Tony was still debating about telling him or not. It was hard to keep a secret like that from his best friend, whom he has known since early childhood, and it wasn't something he wanted to do, but what choice did he have? If Rhodey knew, he could freak out on me, Tony thought. He would probably be mad and would make me tell dad, or maybe even make me endlessly work on the time machine until it's finished; which it almost is, so it's not like that'd be too bad, but still. How would he react?

Then another thought struck him. What about Rhodey seeing the armor? What would he think of that? The first time he saw it he thought dad would just make something better. But that was a different time…maybe at least I can show him that.

"Where exactly are we going?" Rhodey asked.

"To the lab. There's something interesting I have to show you." Tony explained. Rhodey was a bit more curious now. Were they going to see the time machine?

Once they got to the lab, Tony showed Rhodey to the very back where, displayed on the wall for all to see, was a red and gold suit of armor; the same suit of armor he had seen when he had been spying on Tony.

"What is that?" Rhodey asked, faking his surprise.

"It's a weapons-capable suit of armor. Although I don't like using the term 'weapons' as a description of it," Tony explained.

"It's awesome! I haven't seen anything like it before! Do you have any idea how this could revolutionize the world?" Rhodey said.

"Yeah, but I'm not getting the Iron Man armor into any Stark International business. This is going to sound weird, but its strictly for superhero purposes." Tony explained. This was new to Rhodey.

"Superhero?" He asked. Tony nodded.

"That's my main intention for this armor. It was built to protect people, and that's what I'm going to do with it." Tony said.

"…as soon as some crime arises…" Tony finished.

"Well this is a new turn for you, Tony. I didn't think you had such brave intents." Rhodey said, surprised.

"At first I didn't either. But then things happened, and it just ended up that way. It's not really a process I can explain." Tony said, knowing that explaining meant revealing his time machine's existence. Which for now, was a no-no. Rhodey shrugged.

"Well hey, if that's what you want to do man, then I'll be by your side." Rhodey said. Tony smiled.

"Thanks dude."

~…~

"So who's this new fellow of yours?" Virgil asked as he watched his daughter doing her homework at the kitchen table. He caught her smile.

"Oh, you would never believe it!" Pepper said excitedly as she set down her pen and looked up to her father, who raised his eyebrows as a sign of interest.

"Here I was, walking down the street, when none other than Tony Stark comes up to me. Before I know it, we're dating." Pepper explained, leaving out as many hints to a time machine as she could find.

"So what you're saying is it's completely random?"

"Yeah. That's right." There was a moment of silence as Virgil sipped his coffee.

"Well. I'll have to meet the fellow."

Pepper smiled and nodded.

"I'll make sure to arrange that, dad."

**Agh, another chapter turned out short -.- I hope it was good. I'm trying not to rush into the ending so quickly, am I doing a good job so far? I hope so…review!**


	10. Going Home

"So where are we going?" Tony asked with a smirk. He had been working on the time machine when Pepper had come in, grabbed his arm and started dragging him out of the lab and across town. She still wouldn't tell him where they're going.

"My apartment!" She briefly explained.

"And why are we going there?" He asked, keeping his smirk.

"Because!" She said. Tony, on the inside, swooned over her wide smile; but remained smirking on the outside.

"Because…?"

"Because there's someone there who might wanna meet you!" Pepper said. Tony was very curious now.

"And who might that be?" He asked.

"You'll see."

After a few more minutes of walking through town, they reached Pepper's apartment and Pepper swung the front door open to reveal her father, sitting on the couch reading a newspaper. He set it down to see Pepper standing in the doorway, still holding onto Tony's hand. He smiled.

"Why hello there son! Nice to finally meet you," He said with a half-smile, sticking his hand out for Tony to shake; which he did. They sat down on the couch and began a long conversation involving the meeting of 'my daughter and her beau'.

Tony, of course, hadn't seen any of this coming. He hadn't heard a word from Pepper about meeting her father, but it wasn't like he minded. He liked Pepper's dad. And he wasn't too bad at charming them both into approving of him, thankfully. He knew that if he made the wrong impression on her father, it wouldn't be too pretty; and he just plain didn't want to dive into that.

After a few hours, Tony and Pepper walked back to Tony's lab where Tony was finished with his time machine.

"What, you _finally _finished fixing that thing?" Pepper said.

"Oh, yeah. Earlier today I did that." Tony answered.

"Shouldn't you, you know, go back in time and fix what you messed with or something?" She commented.

"Eh, yeah, but I have time don't I?" Tony said with a smirk. Pepper folded her arms and glared at him.

"Aw, fine I'll go back."

"Hey Tony, I have to tell you something…" Rhodey said as he walked into the lab.

"What's up?" Tony responded. Tony didn't bother hiding the time machine from him because he wanted to explain it to him and say goodbye before he changed what he messed with.

Rhodey stopped as he saw the time machine sitting in plain sight.

"What's that?" He asked, pointing to the time machine and pretending to be surprised to see it.

"Oh. Yeah. About that. There's kinda this whole story behind it…" Tony explained. "What is it you wanted to tell me?"

"…well, it's about that actually. I know what it is and that means I know why you're here and I know there's something important you need to do." Rhodey explained. Tony was very surprised.

"How did you…?" Tony asked.

"I kinda overheard when you were talking about it to Pepper when she first saw it…" Rhodey explained.

"But anyways, I came to make sure you're not stalling fixing all this any longer." Tony let out a short breath of air indicating a short laugh.

"What, you're both being my mother now?" Tony joked. "I was really just about to do that. You guys worry too much."

After that, there was a brief silence followed, and then Tony knew it was time for goodbyes. So he said his goodbyes to Rhodey, then turned around for the hard part: saying goodbye to Pepper.

Tony turned to her with a frown on his face. He didn't want to say goodbye.

"All I have to say, Tony, is if you had the confidence to tell me how you feel in this timeline, I'm sure you'll have the confidence in your own alternate universe." Pepper said. Tony sighed.

"I guess I'll have to take your word for it then…" Tony said. He then pulled her into his embrace and kissed her with all his confidence for one last time.

"Before I go, there's one last thing I have to do." Tony said, watching as his father walked into the lab to grab a few things he had left in there from earlier in the day.

Once Howard walked in, he saw the large contraption sitting behind Tony and shot a questioning look at it.

"What's this?" He asked.

"Dad, there's something I need to tell you…" And so Tony began to explain the last few days to his father.

"…and I just wanted my chance to say goodbye. Because I didn't get to before. I-I guess I just still had some trouble letting go…" Tony finished. Howard hadn't had any idea any of this had happened. True, he had been suspicious as to what Tony's weird device was, but he didn't think it went this in-depth. He now felt very sorry for his son, and wondered who would do such a thing and why.

~…~

After saying the last of his goodbyes, Tony set the time machine for the date and time when he had meddled. He watched as the events played out in their correct order and stood by where he could not be seen and let the events flow the way they originally went. He watched sadly as they boarded the plane, the plane took off, then exploded. He watched himself as he crawled towards survival, pain centering in his chest and surging through his body. He knew what he was feeling then, and it was as if he was feeling it all over again.

But as he watched he realized that everything happens for a reason and this had happened so he could become Iron Man, but more importantly, meet who he would soon discover to be the girl of his dreams.

So yeah, Tony thought, what happened in my life was sad and I wish I could take back every minute of it. But in a way I'm also glad that everything happened the way it did, or else I'd never be where I am today.

And boy, am I glad to be where I am.

**Okay well I just needed to wrap this story up for the same reasons I have for wrapping up my other ones: more time for other stories plus its at its end anyways…review?**


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